Franz Josef Strauss

Franz Josef Strauss (6 September 1915-3 October 1988) was Minister President of Bavaria from 6 November 1978 to 3 October 1988, succeeding Alfons Goppel and preceding Max Streibl. He was a member of the CSU party, which he chaired from 1961 to 1988.

Biography
Franz Josef Strauss was born in Munich, Bavaria, German Empire in 1915, and he served in the Wehrmacht during World War II. One of the co-founders of the CSU in 1946, he became its general secretary in 1949, deputy president in 1952, and president in 1961. A member of the federal parliament from 1949 to 1978, he became Secretary for Special Affairs in 1953, Secretary for Nuclear Issues in 1955, and Foreign Secretary in 1956, when he oversaw the rearmament of the West German Bundesheer as part of NATO begun in 1955. He resigned over allegations of lying to Parliament in 1962, but he rejoined the government as Finance Secretary from 1966 to 1969. His briskness and his right-wing views were constant points of friction with the more centrist CDU, and also cost him general popular support outside Bavaria. As a result, under his leadership in the 1980 elections against Helmut Schmidt, the CDU/CSU sustained the worst defeat in its history. By contrast, his popularity in Bavaria, where he continued to win the state elections with record majorities, remained extremely high. He died in office in 1988.